“Five hundred and forty souls were added to the church”

In the Letter of Severus of Minorca on the Conversion of the Jews, it is said that 540 Jews became Christians during one week in February 418. The Letter cunningly positions Christians as actors motivated by pious zeal and love for the Jews, refraining from violence and violating no laws regarding Jews and their synagogues. The underlying reality, if any, was likely quite different. Regardless, the Letter exemplifies and encapsulates many of the issues presented in this book: the reliability and rhetorical purposes of Christian accounts of Jewish conversions; social relations between Jews and Christians in late antique towns; the diverse tactics Christian bishops employed (scriptural debates, threats of violence and social misfortune, and actual mob violence, including burning synagogues and confiscating Jewish books); Roman laws pertaining to attacks on Jews and their synagogues; and the numerous consequences for Jews who became Christians.